No More Heroes: Hero vs Savior
by Okoa
Summary: This fanfic takes place one year after the events of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Travis finds himself forced to fight in the new UAA rankings in order to bring stability to Santa Destroy's ailing economy.
1. Prelude

AFTERMATH TO A WAR

After his brutal vengeance against the Pizza Batt corporation for murdering his best friend, Travis Touchdown laid down his sword out of pure disgust for the ranking matches. The United Assassins Association had officially pulled the plug after Travis' second ascension to number one, and Travis himself swore only to fight for his own definition of justice.

Due to the death of Pizza Batt's CEO at the hands of Travis and the subsequent destabilization of the company, many other corporations have reappeared in Santa Destroy in an attempt to save its failing economy. The city became a new breeding ground for assassins as corporate executives are at each other's throats, using freelance assassins and killers as their tools.

Travis, however, has chosen to sit on the sidelines and avoid the battles around the city. However, rumors are flying around of an underground revival of the United Assassins Association, this time recruiting twenty-five skilled assassins within their ranks. But rumors, as they say, are still just rumors.

But now Travis has settled down. His days as a killer have long since come to a close. But an assassin's lust for combat seldom dies, and the "No More" Hero may be forced to once again pick up his sword to compete against others like him. The call of the tiger has sounded once more.

* * *

"And here…" An arm flew into the air.

"…we…" Another arm went airborne.

"…go!" This time, a head was sent flying in a fountain of blood. All that was left was a torso with legs that collapsed to the ground in a broken, bloody heap.

Travis Touchdown stood amidst a gang of thugs in a back alley, clutching his trademark beam katana, the Blood Berry, in his right hand. The thugs that flanked him were armed with crowbars and other assorted metal objects, and due to the way they weaved in and out hesitantly, Travis could tell that they were complete amateurs.

"Now hold on just a second," Travis said, apparently not talking to the thugs. "In what sad, misshapen universe do you live in trying to tell the readers that I'm through doing what I do best? I'm on a fuckin' roll today!"

One of the thugs made a lunge towards Travis, who responded by calmly dodging the attack and swinging his katana through the thug's midsection. The entire upper half of his body flew off, spewing blood and gore everywhere. Travis kicked the still-erect legs down to the ground.

"Oh, and for you readers out there," Travis continued, slowly raising his beam katana in the air. "Sit back and relax. I can still kick ass even in a fanfiction. Enjoy the show!"

Another thug attempted to rush Travis, who was still holding his beam katana high in the air. Travis brought his arm slightly back, took one step forward, and brought the katana straight down in a clean slice.


	2. Sleeper Awakens

Travis sat at a table at the Burger Suplex fast food restaurant right across the street from the motel where he lived. It was an outdoor restaurant that, thanks to Santa Destroy's tropical climate, was immensely popular amongst the citizens. Travis himself visited quite frequently, opting regularly to get a couple double cheeseburgers and a large shake.

"Hey, are you Travis Touchdown?" a voice behind him inquired. Travis leaned back in his chair and turned around, with his elbow on the back of the chair. Three youths stood behind him wearing black tank tops and camouflage army shorts, holding what looked like switchblades that weren't opened.

Travis sighed and shook his head. "You've gotta be kidding."

"Mr. Touchdown!" one of the youths said. He appeared to be their leader. "We have been hired by Vesin Firms to take you out!"

"No. Go home."

"No way, man. We're getting our paycheck! I hope you're ready to die today." The three youths opened their switchblades.

Travis sighed again and quickly stood up from his chair. The abruptness in which he got up made the youths flinch. "Alright, lemme give you a piece of advice. If you wanna strike from behind, then don't announce it unless you know your opponent is weaker than you."

"The three of us can take you down easily!" the leader shouted. He was clearly shaking.

"Uh-huh," Travis said. "You guys clearly have no idea what you're doing. But if it'll make you happy, then I'll end this quickly." He took his beam katana off of his belt and activated it.

The leader made a quick step forward, hesitated, moved forward a bit more, hesitated again, and made a quick stabbing motion towards Travis. In the one instant where the blade was closest, Travis swung his katana and sliced the blade in two. The youth dropped the handle and stumbled to the ground, crawling backwards towards his friends, who were now paralyzed with apprehension.

Travis chuckled. "That it? You guys done already?"

The leader got up and pushed the other two towards Travis. They were put off-balance momentarily, but they quickly corrected themselves and swung at Travis almost simultaneously. He dodged both their swings easily and sliced the blades off again, leaving all three youths completely unarmed.

Travis de-activated his beam katana and put it back on his belt. "Get the hell out of my sight, and don't let me catch you around here again! You got me?"

The three youths were gone; they turned around and took off before Travis finished his speech. Travis muttered an "I thought so" and sat down again. He had taken no more than two bites into his burger before he heard a familiar female voice with a thick French accent from behind.

"You call that a fight?"

Travis turned around again and saw a familiar face. It was the woman who helped him ascend the ranks of the United Assassins Association twice in a row. That curled blonde hair and slim, high-heeled figure was far too identifiable to be mistaken for anyone else. It was Sylvia Christel, the double-layered agent whose job it was to arrange ranking fights between assassins. But since the UAA no longer existed, Travis couldn't help but wonder.

"Sylvia?" he said, getting up from his chair. "Why is it that you always show up after over a whole year of being completely invisible? And hold on, don't tell me. You being here means that the UAA is back and there are more fucking ranking battles, am I right?"

"Now don't go assuming everything like you always do," she said. Her voice still had that sultry tone to it. "Things are a bit different this time. The NUAA—New United Assassins Association—is moving into Santa Destroy. They're hoping to clean the streets of this unruly town."

"By bringing even more assassins into it? How does that make sense?"

"I struck a deal with them. I'll explain later, but for now, they would like to recruit you into their ranks. There are currently twenty-five assassins who are all waiting to see you in battle."

"Uh-huh. Well, listen closely, Sylvia. I don't do that shit anymore. I'm not gonna continue fighting and killing for some bastard's wet dream. It's pointless."

"Travis, a whole new challenge is coming your way. You can't simply back out of it!"

"What do you…don't tell me you registered me already!"

"I had no choice, Travis. Nathaniel Tidas, the president of the NUAA, said that was part of the deal. And he's already prepared the first ranked match."

"Oh, for fuck's sake…"

"Come on, think of it this way." She sat down in the chair opposite his. He sat back down as well. "You'll be doing Santa Destroy a favor by complying with Tidas on this one. Think of how much safer the streets will be after this."

"Protecting this city was supposed to be my fight. This Tidas bastard has nothing to do with it!"

"It's too late for that. You'll come around; don't worry about it. For now, come down to K-Entertainment and I'll give you the details on the first ranked fight."

She got up and walked back to her limousine, leaving Travis furiously searching for something to say.

"This is so not moe," was all he was able to get out.

* * *

Travis rode his customized Schpeltiger motorbike down to the K-Entertainment building and noticed it hadn't really changed much. He wondered if they still dealt in underground assassinations like they used to, but it appeared to be the NUAA's new headquarters, or at least a placeholder building until they got their own formal headquarters.

Travis navigated his way through the building to Sylvia's office. Things apparently hadn't changed too much since he last strolled through there, but it was obvious that many of the employees there were not from Santa Destroy. Travis could tell simply by the way they dressed and how they talked, from the small snippets of conversation that he overheard.

He located Sylvia's office and knocked on the door a few times. Sylvia answered and Travis entered, closing the door behind him. He saw her sitting behind her desk like normal, but sitting in the chair adjacent to her desk was another man that Travis had never seen before. He looked fairly young, perhaps younger than Travis, wearing a short-sleeved business shirt with a tie, and with his hair in a pompadour style.

Sylvia looked up. "Ah, Travis. Good timing! I would like you to meet someone."

"I see. Who's this?" Travis asked.

"This is Sid Weitz. He's been sent by Tidas to prepare you for the ranking matches. He'll be your guide for the first fight."

Sid got up and extended his hand, which Travis hesitantly shook. "Nice to meet you, Travis. I hope you don't mind."

"A guide? Do I really need one?" Travis said.

"My boss found it necessary, since he figured that you may be a little rusty since your last go. Don't worry, it won't last long. We're just gonna run a few errands where you can get practiced up just in time for the fight."

"Well, if you say so. You got a car?"

"Yep, it's parked outside. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, I guess so. By the way, who is the twenty-fifth ranked assassin?"

Sid put his hand on the doorknob as if to open it, but he stopped suddenly. "That would be me."

Neither of them said anything as Sid opened the door. They both walked out in complete silence to his car parked outside.


	3. Consolidation

===RANKING MATCH===  
—RANK 25: SID WEITZ—

_"To risk your life for a greater purpose….that is true honor."  
_

"So what's our first stop?" Travis asked, after a considerable silence. The two hadn't said much since they got in the car, but Travis knew that he had to break the ice eventually.

"Well, like I said, we're gonna get you ready for the fight by giving you some live target practice. You're familiar with how that works, right?"

"Yeah, I've done that before. But who is the live target practice?"

"Some agents who work for Vesin Firms. Seems like they tried to order a hit out on you earlier. Did you get their message?"

"Eh, sort of. I got three pansies with tiny pocket knives, if that counts. So we're gonna get them back?"

"That's right. If they came after you, we figure that it's because they consider you a threat. They have to be up to something."

Travis thought for a moment before responding. "And then we fight?"

"Yeah. Then we fight."

"Huh. Alright." It was obvious that 'target practice' was not the primary intention behind this assignment, but Travis figured that whatever the NUAA benefitted from stunting Vesin's growth was none of his concern.

"Let me tell you something, though, Travis. Vesin hires some of the best hired guns they can buy. They'll sure give you a run for your money. To be frank, I think you're as good as dead."

"Heh. Heard that before."

"Alright, we're here." Sid stopped the car in front of a parking garage next to a large corporate building. "This is where executives from Vesin are going to meet. You'll have to get past their bodyguards first. Think you can do that?"

Travis scoffed. "Time me."

"Alright, you're on," Sid chuckled. "Go get 'em."

Travis got out of the car—beam katana in hand—and entered the parking garage. He didn't get far before he was stopped by a burly security guard at the gate.

"Whoa whoa whoa," the guard said, stepping out of the booth. "This area's off-limits for now. If you need to get into the building, take the stairs."

Travis activated his beam katana. "Alright. How do you wanna die?"

Another guard, who had approached from behind, grabbed Travis and pinned him against the wall in a hammerlock, causing him to drop his katana. The first guard picked it up.

"Well, this must be Travis Touchdown," the first guard said. "I knew he'd stop by. Let's bring him over to the boss."

Travis struggled to get free as they attempted to bring him inside where the executives were meeting. After about three steps, he found an opening where the guard's grip weakened slightly—an opportunity he used to break free of the hammerlock and clock the guard in the mouth with a back-handed elbow strike. He then grabbed the guard's head into a headlock, lifted him up in the air, and fell backwards in a powerful vertical suplex. Travis immediately got up and, before the guard could stand back up as well, punched him square in the face, knocking him out.

The second guard had planned on attacking Travis before he could complete the suplex, but instead elected to attack him with his own beam katana. It had taken him until the first guard was out to figure out how to activate it, but Travis was more than ready to handle him at that point.

"I'd put that down if I were you," Travis said in a condescending manner.

"Fuck you! I can slice you in two with this thing!"

Travis sighed, then reached to his belt and pulled out two beam katana hilts, both with a red and silver color scheme. This was the dual beam katana that his best friend Bishop Shidux left as a gift before he was killed—the Rose Nasty. When he activated both katanas simultaneously, he saw fear flood the guard's face.

"Like I said," Travis continued. "You'd better let me have that before you lose a limb."

The guard stood trembling for a second, then charged Travis with the beam katana. Travis responded by easily deflecting the strike and slicing off the guard's hand. He then jumped into the air, and sliced downward into the guard's body, cutting him evenly in half.

The commotion had attracted the attention of the executives and their bodyguards, who came running to the scene, guns ready. Travis charged at them, dodging and deflecting bullets with his katanas. He cut a swath in the two gunmen in the front, completely separating their torsos from their bodies. Two more gunmen, who were nearby, prepared to aim their guns but were interrupted by Travis, who slashed their heads off in one swipe.

"Alright," Travis said, when only the three executives remained. "I don't know what the hell it is you guys are planning, but it's finished, you got me? You guys are stupid enough to have gotten me involved in the first place."

The executives murmured to each other for a while and then turned back to Travis. "Very well, Travis. You win. We'll leave."

They all turned around and walked back to their cars. Travis knew that they'd be back after a while, but he decided he'd take care of it when the time came. He watched their cars exit the building, making sure they didn't try anything, and noticed that once they were all gone, another car entered and parked nearby.

It was Sid's car. It was time.


	4. Emancipation RANK 25

Sid exited the vehicle and walked over in Travis' direction. Before he got too far, he stopped and picked something from the ground. It was Blood Berry, the beam katana that the guard stole and tried to use against Travis.

"Forget something?" he said, throwing it to Travis, who caught it with his right hand. "You should watch your step."

"I got a little careless is all," Travis responded. "Doesn't matter. I'm still alive, right?"

"True, and I noticed you left those executives alive too. Are we going against company policy here?"

"Company policy my ass. I don't give a shit about what the association thinks about the way I fight. I got my own rules."

"So I see. Tidas warned me about that. No matter; we all have our own rules and practices as assassins. There's no point in relying on someone else to tell you how to fight, right?"

"That's right. Seems like you don't agree with your boss on everything, eh?"

Sid chuckled. "Well, hate to say it, but it's my job to follow orders. As the assassin ranked last place on the list, I have to test each individual challenger to see if they're worthy to compete. So far, none of them have ever defeated me in a duel."

Travis activated Rose Nasty again and adopted an offensive stance. "Well, I hope you're ready to meet the first!"

Sid reached into his pockets and pulled out two small cylinders, one in each hand. The cylinders opened up, expanded, and grew what appeared to be receivers on one end and a beam emitter on the other. A bright orange beam emerged from the emitter. It was just as Travis suspected; they were beam katanas.

"Dual beam katanas, eh?" Travis asked.

"That's right. Seems you're not the only one who got a hold of such a weapon. This weapon is called the Hyacinth. My trusty pair of beam katanas."

"Aha. Can't wait to see them in action!"

* * *

Travis tried to rush Sid with a running slash, but missed when Sid dodged the attack with a quick sidestep. He quickly wheeled around and blocked a slash from Sid, and then found himself blocking a violent and rapid flurry of blows that seemed uncharacteristic of someone using such bulky weapons. It was all Travis could do just to stand his ground.

Travis found an opening where he could back off and regain his stance. Sid's combination of speed and power caught him off-guard and put him in an uneasy defensive position. He made another rush towards Sid, this time attempting a double downward strike to increase the probability of a hit. Sid dodged the first slash and blocked the second one, leaving Travis in an awkward and vulnerable situation.

Travis attempted to correct himself by bringing his sword back and striking low, hoping to connect with a double upward strike; however, Sid performed a quick sidestep to dodge both swipes, again leaving Travis vulnerable. Sid took this opportunity to unleash another flurry of strikes on Travis, who was totally unprepared and frantically blocked as many hits as he could.

Travis backed off again. _Damn it, he's too fast. I can't break him. I'm gonna need a new strategy._

He moved toward Sid using gallop-like steps, using both caution and momentum in an attempt to throw off Sid's concentration. When he got close, he performed a wide variety of horizontal and vertical slashes, striking from as many angles as he could.

Sid blocked every slash perfectly, but was caught off-guard when Travis dealt a flying back kick to his chest. It connected and sent him reeling back a few steps, and Travis immediately jumped in and dealt multiple slashes, putting Sid on the defensive.

Sid jumped back to regroup. "You're not bad. Most other assassins would've been dead by now."

"Yeah, well, I'm not most assassins," Travis scoffed. "Don't forget, I've reached top rank twice in a row."

"That's true. But now, it's time to get serious." Sid clamped the two katana hilts together. They clicked into position, and the sword beams combined into each other to form a much larger and longer blade. At this point, it had assumed the form of a broadsword.

"Damn," Travis said. "You guys don't fuck around, do you?"

"No, we sure don't. This will be the true test."

Sid charged forward and swung the Hyacinth straight down. Travis rolled out of the way and the Hyacinth struck the ground with full force, creating a large crater and setting off several car alarms in the first and second levels of the garage.

_Holy shit,_ Travis thought. _Can't let that thing touch me. I bet I can beat him if I use the weight of his sword against him._

Sid charged again, and Travis met him halfway with a downward strike. Sid blocked it, then struck with a backward horizontal swipe. The force sent Travis reeling when he tried to block the attack.

"Come on, Travis," Sid taunted. "You're better than this. Attack me!"

He came forward with the broadsword once more and swung. Travis dodged the swing, then the return swing, then deflected the third swing with both katanas. This put Sid off-balance and gave Travis enough of an opening to rush in and drive one of his katanas through Sid's stomach.

Dropping the broadsword to the ground, Sid tried to speak through the guttural sounds and the blood dripping from his mouth. "Amazing…you really are the Crownless King. I had…a feeling it would end like this."

"It's been fun," Travis replied. "But I have to take the rank sometime."

"Yeah, I know. I'm happy, though. I got to see you battle, in the way that I had always heard about from the previous ranking fights. Now that was a true honor." He coughed up some more blood.

"Yeah. Thanks for the battle. Good night....Sid." Travis pulled the one katana out of Sid's stomach and, with the other, sliced his head straight off. It flew away and rolled right under one of the parked cars, whose alarms had all but ceased.

* * *

A black limousine came down from the second level of the parking garage. It stopped in front of Travis, and Sylvia stepped out of the backseat, as did the NUAA corpse disposal crew.

"Congratulations, Travis," Sylvia said. "You are ranked twenty-fifth by the NUAA."

"I have to admit, he gave me quite a sweat," Travis replied. "He definitely knew what he was doing."

"Yes. It's such a shame that he had to die for the sake of something like that."

Travis glared at her. "Oh, you're one to talk. You're the one who hosts these fights. Hell, you fucking killed one of my opponents yourself in the last game."

"Well, you know how the rules are. We don't allow mercy amongst assassins."

"Don't give me that shit again. I told you before, they're our fights. We set our own rules, and we end them the way we wanna end them. I hope we're clear on that this time around."

Travis started towards the exit. On his way out, he watched the disposal crew clean up Sid's body. It gave him a feeling of intense anger, a feeling he hadn't felt in over a year. But it was all coming back to him now; he knew at this point, this feeling would be coming back to him a lot in the near future.


	5. Return to Form

Travis returned to his room at the No More Heroes motel and immediately went straight to the toilet. He had no more than just sat down on the seat when his phone started ringing.

"Ugh," Travis groaned to himself. "Every damn time. I'll just let the machine get it."

After it rang the fifth time, the answering machine kicked in. "Hello, Travis! It's me, Sylvia!" the voice said on the other line. "I have the details on the next ranking fight. Come to my office as soon as you can."

"Well, that was fast. I wonder who…"

"Oh, one more thing," Sylvia's message continued. "If you're on the can, take your time. I understand how stressful these battles can be. Just stop by when you can, okay?" She giggled and hung up.

Travis sighed. "She don't miss a thing…"

* * *

When he was finished, Travis took the time to give his pet cat Jeane a small treat and a quick backrub. She purred loudly as he stroked her behind the ears and across her back.

"Be a good girl while Daddy's gone, okay?" he said in a baby voice. "I should be back right before dinnertime. Don't eat up the place."

On his way out the door, he stopped and looked over at an anime poster on his wall. The new Bizarre Jelly mecha anime series had aired in America recently, and he's been busy buying up as much merchandise as he could afford from the Beef Head Videos store. The poster that was on the wall showed the title characters, five cute anime girls in differently-colored scanty uniforms huddled around the series logo.

"Moe…" he sighed to himself as he opened the door and left.

* * *

Travis walked into Sylvia's office. "Sorry I'm late," he said almost immediately upon entering.

"Oh, I had a feeling you would be," she said wryly. "Anyways, take a seat. Let me tell you about the next ranked fight."

"Alright," he said, sitting down on the couch across from her desk. "Lay it on me."

"The battle will take place at the Observatory near Body Slam Beach. You know where that is, right?"

"Yeah."

"Very good. You'll have to head to the very top floor of the Observatory. That's where the next assassin is waiting."

"Can't fuckin' wait. Is that all?"

"Yes, that'll do it. Good luck, Travis!"

Travis stood up and started out toward the door. "When I get back," he said. "I'd like to hear more about this Tidas guy. I want to know why he started the UAA again."

"If you survive this fight, then it's a deal."

He scoffed. "Of course I'll survive. I'll be back in a flash."

With that, he exited the office and rode on his motorbike towards the Observatory. He was feeling the rush of suspense again that came from waiting to see the next opponent in battle.


	6. Final Daybreak

===RANKING MATCH===  
—RANK 24: MORNING ANGEL—

_"T__he morning sinner is ensnared by the morning angel."_

The entrance to the Collar Tie Observatory was blocked off by yellow police tape. Travis parked his motorbike in a nearby parking lot and scoured the area for any sign of the authorities. There appeared to be none.

"Like I always say," he said to himself, stepping over the police tape. "Cops didn't see it, so I didn't do it."

Travis entered the Observatory and found the foyer was eerily quiet, even knowing the entrace was blocked. There was a heavy feeling looming over Travis' mind that he was not only being watched, but also tested. It was an inescapable feeling that he would've expected to have gotten used to by now.

_Well, she said that the next assassin was waiting at the top. Let's see what's up there._ He walked over to the staircase and inspected the surrounding area before he took a single step, and slowly worked his way up looking for any sign of a trap.

He immediately ignited his beam katana once he reached the second floor and turned his head back and forth in both directions in an almost frantic level of uneasiness. He looked down the hallway and saw the staircase leading up to the third floor at the end, brightly lit by the sunlight pouring in from the nearby windows.

"Don't know what I'm worried about," Travis said, making his way down the hallway. "It's broad daylight, for crying out loud. What are the odds that there's a trap waiting in this hall—"

A thin wire that was strung low across the hallway interrupted his speech and almost caused him to lose his balance. A piercing crash was heard from up above, and Travis looked just in time to see a large scythe swing down from the ceiling, coming directly towards him.

"Oh, fuck!" he shouted. He rolled out of the way just as the scythe rushed by, barely brushing his jacket. The mechanism that held it attached to the ceiling gave way, and the scythe careened across the hall and impacted the wall close to the stairway. A holy and angelic female voice was then heard.

"The Garden of Madness lies between heaven and hell. Find me."

Travis stood motionless for a few seconds after the voice disappeared. A chill ran down his spine as he glanced in both directions, in hopes he could at least see a face. He was apparently alone in this hallway, but he knew he was being watched. He ultimately decided to shrug it off and continue to the third floor. He moved up the staircase, keeping his eyes peeled and all his senses alert.

Unlike the second floor, the third floor hallway was darkened due to the windows being completely covered. It was hard to see exactly what it was that was covering the windows, but from where Travis was, it looked like goat skins.

Travis continued through the hallway, staring at the goat skins. They were hung nicely and evenly over the windows, and the stench that emanated from them implied that they were fresh. The stench eventually got so strong that he almost choked on it, forcing him to cover his nose as he made his way down.

He turned the corner and stopped dead in his tracks when two small throwing knives came flying towards him. One brushed his waist on the right side, while the other barely grazed his neck on the left side.

"What…the…fuck?" he said after standing motionless, paralyzed with apprehension, for a few seconds. He turned to look at the knives stuck in the wall behind him, then flinched when he heard the angelic voice again.

"Cleanse the darkness in your soul to be reborn. Submit to the higher power. Allow yourself to be sacrificed in Father's honor."

A virtual wall of knives descended from the ceiling on the other end of the hallway and floated in the air, all aiming at Travis. He got his beam katana ready for the inevitable, but the knives stayed where they were for a bit.

"Conform…" the angelic voice whispered. At that point, the knives flew en masse towards Travis, who dove away from them back down the hallway where he came. Some of the knives impacted the wall, but others had literally stopped in the air and shifted direction to where Travis was, as though controlled by a divine force.

"Son of a…" was all Travis had time to say as he rolled back to his feet. He swung his beam katana down low, taking out the knives coming from there, and used the opening to roll under the remaining ones. The remaining ones stopped in midair, made a complete u-turn, and came flying back.

Travis held the beam katana at his side with both hands, akin to a samurai holding his katana in its scabbard. As he shouted the name of his attack—"Thunder Tiger Strike!"—he swung his beam katana and created a shock wave that completely disintegrated not only the knives, but also the goat skins hanging on the windows. The room subsequently got much brighter.

He sighed with relief. "Man, what kind of hellhole did this place become?"

The door to the stairwell was visible from the other end of the hall, and thanks to the new source of light pouring in from the outside, Travis could clearly see a bloodstain streaked across it, as though applied deliberately.

"Jeez," he said. "You're one cocky bastard, aren't you? Can't wait to see your face."

He stepped through the doorway, beam katana in hand, and walked up the stairs to get to the rooftop.


	7. Firstborn Nightfall RANK 24

Travis had to ascend three flights of stairs to get to the rooftop, but it felt very much worth it when he got there. The sun shone brightly in the cloudless afternoon sky. The wind was slightly stronger due to the higher altitude, but Travis found it refreshing, as it somewhat balanced out the sun's heat. Because of the Observatory's close proximity to the beach, the rooftop offered a fantastic view of the ocean, which sparkled with the sun's reflections. The noises of the city traffic were drowned out by the sound of the waves and the blowing wind. The only thing preventing complete view of the sky was a large radio tower in the very middle of the roof.

Travis couldn't help but stare at the ocean. "Damn. I've never been up here before, but the view's really awesome."

The same angelic voice from inside emerged from above. "One does not notice true beauty even when it's front of them."

Travis wheeled around and looked up to see the ranked assassin he was here for: a girl who was clothed in a white classic lolita-style outfit. Her hair was a dirty blond hue and her stockings rose up to her thighs. She sat on a small ledge high up on the radio tower, hanging her legs over the edge. He figured she had to have been waiting for him for quite a while.

Travis activated his beam katana. "And you are?"

The girl stood up from her post. "I have come for you, Travis Touchdown. I am an angel, and it is time for your repentance."

"An angel, huh? That's a new one."

"I have only good intentions, Travis. Please come with me."

He paused a bit before replying. "Are you sure you're a ranked assassin? You sure don't look it."

"I took this contest as an opportunity to meet you face-to-face. I want you to cleanse your soul of all the corruption you obtained by killing so many people over the years."

"Yeah, I know my soul is probably a charred mess right now, but I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

Without standing up, she took out a bow and arrow and aimed it at Travis. "Then you will soon feel the purity of light tear your skin apart."

She fired the arrow. Travis rolled out of the way and it hit the floor with a solid thud. "I hope that's not the only trick you have, little girl," he taunted her.

She said nothing in reply. Instead, a flash of light shown from the arrow in the ground. Travis turned around to look at it, and saw a large pentagram symbol around the arrow in about a three-foot radius. As the symbol began to light up some more, Travis noticed he was standing within the radius and felt the ground getting a lot warmer underneath him.

At the last minute, he dove away from the symbol's area. A pillar of light immediately blasted up from the pentagram into the sky. A seagull that happened to be caught in it emerged from the pillar as a cluster of ashes.

Once the light died down, Travis looked back up and saw the girl taking aim again. "Alright, little girl," he said, switching to his giant beam katana, Peony. "I think it's past your bedtime!"

* * *

Morning Angel fired another arrow down at Travis, who rolled out of the way just in time. As the pentagram blasted its ray of light into the sky, Travis ran towards the radio tower and swung Peony at the base. The katana was not able to puncture the hard steel, but it created enough of a tremor to cause Angel to lose her balance and fall off her post. She performed a midair twirl and landed right on her feet.

As she recovered from the fall, Travis switched back to Blood Berry and charged her. She jumped back a bit, almost floating as she did, and armed another arrow. This time, she fired it in the air, right over Travis' head. When it passed directly over his head, it exploded into a shower of light arrows that rained down on top of him.

Travis cursed and dove towards the radio tower to avoid the deadly sparks coming down from above. He was able to find a panel sticking out of the tower, similar to the one Angel was sitting on earlier, to use as cover. When they stopped, Travis immediately charged and attempted to slash her. She raised the handle of the bow to meet with the katana. The bow did not break; instead, it stopped Travis' attack cold. She was now holding the bow like a quarterstaff.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed.

The string retracted into a slot in the bow, and two more slots opened on each end where a buzzsaw emerged. They assembled themselves and began loudly whirring. Angel advanced towards Travis, twirling and spinning the weapon with tremendous fury and speed.

Travis was forced to retreat away from her as her assault grew in intensity and left no openings for attack. He ran to the other side of the rooftop to regain his bearings. She ceased her assault and stood where she was.

The two stared at each other for about two minutes. Travis tried his best to read her strategy, but her calm demeanor prevented him from gathering anything about her. It truly alarmed him how young she looked and how fast she was with that weapon. Something in the back of his mind told him that maybe she really was what she claimed to be.

The buzzsaws on her weapon retracted and went back into the slot, and the bowstring re-emerged from its respective slot. She took out another arrow—which Travis noted looked slightly different than the previous ones she's fired—and aimed it at him. The tip of the arrow glowed blue once she had pulled the string as far as it would go.

"Rain Point!" she shouted as she released the arrow.

"Shit!" Travis quickly fell to the ground to avoid the arrow. It stopped in its tracks immediately where he was, then shot straight into the air, seemingly on its own. It flew higher and higher, leaving a bright blue streak in its wake, then exploded into a cluster of smaller arrows that flew straight towards him.

Travis held his beam katana at his waist, getting ready to charge the Thunder Tiger Strike. The arrows came so fast that he had no time for a fully-charged strike, but he was able to put a little power behind it before he was forced to release it.

"Thunder Tiger Strike!" he quickly called out. The swathe created by his swing eliminated some of the arrows and blew some others off-course, but two more were left unaffected. One caught Travis' jacket below his right arm, and the other caught the very tip of the left shoulder. It sent him flying back to the wall next to the stairwell door and trapped him.

Angel converted her bow back into the buzzsaw weapon and ran over to Travis, getting ready to strike. Travis desperately tried to pull the arrows out of the wall, but they had pierced the wall too deeply and they wouldn't budge from their holes.

At the last minute, when Angel was just about to strike, he winded his foot back and kicked the weapon out of her hands. It slid across the floor over to the other side of the rooftop. He followed up with a second kick to her gut, which sent her reeling back several steps.

"You are a gifted fighter," Morning Angel told him, still clutching her stomach.

"Just wait until I get out of this," Travis retorted. "I'm gonna give you a run for your money."

"We will see about that," she said as she walked back to where her weapon lay.

Travis struggled with the arrows a bit more, then stopped when he felt a surge of energy rush through him. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in a while; it almost felt as though the beam katana itself took on a life of its own. It felt like the energy flowing through him was being channeled from the katana.

"Be one with your force," he whispered to himself.

The beam katana blade glowed and crackled with electricity, and the built-up energy put a great strain on the wall. Travis gave a combat shout, then stabbed the katana into the ground. The sheer power of the strike combined with his overflowing energy caused a quake that shattered the wall behind him and completely disintegrated the arrows.

Morning Angel, who had just retrieved her weapon, watched Travis with apprehension as he stood overflowing with energy. It was here that she made the connection; Travis had tapped into a power that unleashed the full extent of his abilities. This power would allow him to strike with greater intensity at about four times the speed. But she couldn't figure out how he suddenly got access to this power.

"Come on!" Travis shouted.

Angel switched the weapon back to the bow and armed an arrow. "Rain Point!" she shouted as she released it.

The arrow immediately split into multiples and flew tip-first towards Travis. He did not try to dodge any; instead, he deflected each and every arrow, with lightning-quick reflexes, using just his beam katana.

Angel armed two more arrows and quickly shot them. As soon as she had finished shouting the Rain Point attack, Travis had already run up to her and sliced the arrows into pieces, preventing them from splitting.

Angel hastily converted her weapon again and swiped at Travis with the buzzsaws. Travis deflected the strike and, fueled by pure power, unleashed a furious barrage of slashes that put a great strain on Angel's weapon as she was put on the defensive. It wasn't long before her bow completely snapped in two due to the sheer stress.

Angel dropped the two pieces to the ground and jumped back to give herself time to use some of her arrows as melee weapons. She was able to get them out, but she had no time to use them before Travis had grabbed one of the pieces of the bow, sliced off the tips of the arrows in her hands, and gouged Angel in the abdomen with the buzzsaw.

Gagging, she fell to her knees and coughed up some blood. Travis' energy surge had worn off at that moment.

"So," she choked out. "You are truly satisfied with your destiny?"

"I don't really believe in destiny so much," Travis replied. "I just enjoy fighting other assassins like me."

"I see," she said. "You are different from every other assassin out there. You are…"—she coughed—"…so…passionate."

After those final words, she fell over, dead. Travis stood panting for a couple seconds, then collapsed to the ground due to exhaustion.

* * *

A helicopter with the letters "NUAA" etched across the side flew in close to the Observatory. Sylvia sat in the passenger's seat with the door wide open, holding a microphone.

"Well done, Travis! You are now ranked twenty-fourth!"

"Sweet," Travis said, still laying on the ground panting. "It's—whew—it's been a while since I've felt that. It's quite a rush."

"Looked like pure ecstasy to me. I've seen it before from you, no?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure is a great feeling."

"Well, I'll leave you here to recuperate. See you back at my office tomorrow!"

She closed the passenger door and the helicopter flew away, leaving Travis on the rooftop recovering from that intense but passionate energy rush.


	8. Hindsight

The next morning, Travis found a note stuffed underneath his motel room door, folded neatly into three sections. He grabbed the note, sat down in the chair in front of the TV, and opened it. It said, in neatly-written cursive handwriting:

_I have the information you wanted on Nathaniel Tidas. Please come to the Fireman's Bridge off of route 212 and meet me there. This must be discreet. –Sylvia._

"Huh," he said, tossing the note in the wastebasket. "I guess she's worried that the phones might be tapped. Well, whatever works."

He got up from the chair, walked out the door, and got on his Schpeltiger motorbike. The engine roared as he powered it up, and the tires squealed loudly as he drove out of the motel parking lot at full speed.

* * *

Travis found Sylvia waiting on the bridge, leaning on the rail looking over the side to the river below. She was wearing her usual business skirt, dress coat, and high heels. Standard attire, Travis thought as he parked his bike and got off.

"We must make this quick," Sylvia said without turning around. "Someone could be watching us right now."

"What, seriously?" he replied. "How many enemies are you making in this town?"

"Sadly, this is the life when you work in the corporate world. Now, about Tidas."

"Right, lay it on me."

"Nathaniel Tidas created the NUAA shortly after you reached top rank last time. Since then, he's gathered the world's top twenty-five assassins so they can compete for the top rank once more."

"I already know that part. What I don't get is why."

"His personal assassin was killed by Dr. Shake in that battle royale we had set up for you. I believe he was trying to get to number one by having someone else climb up the ranks for him."

"Ohh, I see," Travis leaned with his back against the bridge railing. "He's just a corporate pussy who lets other people do the fighting for him."

"I don't know all the details yet, but I'm certain that he was aiming for Jasper Batt, Jr. If anything, I imagine he wanted complete corporate control over Santa Destroy. Killing Batt would give him that, or at least make room for more competition."

"So this is where the NUAA comes in. He brought the twenty-five assassins in to stir up some trouble with all the major corporations around here."

"That's what I'm thinking too."

"Damn. As if the economy wasn't bad enough."

"Well, we can figure out the rest later," Sylvia said, taking a folded-up piece of paper out of her pocket. "Anyways, I have information on your next ranked fight. Are you ready?"

"Of course. Where's it at?"

"Do you see that building over there?"

She pointed to a high-rise a few blocks away that appeared to be unfinished. Several construction cranes were still dotted around the building, and there was still a large section missing from the top.

"Yeah," Travis said.

"That's where the next fight will take place. Be careful; this next opponent is very dangerous."

"Yeah, that's what you always say," Travis sighed as he got on his motorbike. "I think I can manage this one just fine."

"Alright then. Do you need to stop back at your motel room to use the john before you go?"

He powered on the engine and it made a loud roar. "Nah," he smirked. "You just be sure to work on those yoga positions while I'm gone, alright?"

The tires squealed behind him as he drove off in the direction of the building, leaving Sylvia behind smiling to herself.


	9. Country

===RANKING MATCH===  
—RANK 23: AGENT GREY—

_"__Where have all the politicians gone?"_

There were several cars parked in front of the building, sitting on the side of the road. Some of their doors were still open, which suggested to Travis that the guys inside were in a massive hurry at the time. Travis could also plainly see bullet holes spread across some of the concrete walls on the building, and some even on the windows of the cars. Several of the glass windows on the building were splattered with blood.

Travis turned off his motorbike and sighed. "Is it just me, or am I always missing out on the fun here?"

He got off and looked around for any sign of human life in the area. The block was dead quiet, save for the sounds of city traffic off in the distance. There was no doubt in his mind that this was an attempted ambush gone wrong.

He walked over to the front door. Inside the building leaning on the bloodstained windows were the corpses of many men, dressed in business suits, and some of them still holding their 9mm handguns.

"Huh," Travis said. He walked through the doors and examined the bodies. For most of them, their wounds looked cauterized, as though they were burned with some kind of laser weapon. Others had small grapple-like objects sticking out of their heads and their stomachs. One had half his torso missing.

"Damn," he muttered to himself as he observed the carnage. "This is some messy shit. Someone here had a bit too much fun."

A loud noise from farther in the building made Travis flinch. Two men, dressed similarly to the dead ones in the foyer, smashed through the stairwell door and stumbled into the open. They were clearly panic-stricken, as they were out of breath and muttering to themselves. The only lines Travis could pick up were "which way's out?" and "the boss betrayed us."

As soon as they started down the hallway, they immediately stopped when they saw Travis. One of them muttered an "oh, shit." They looked at him, then at each other, then back at him. They feebly raised their hands in the air and whimpered.

Slightly confused, Travis stepped to the side and gestured towards the door. The two men looked at each other with a mix of uncertainty and relief, then put their arms down and ran past Travis and out the door. Travis watched as they got in one of the cars and sped off.

"Well, that was weird," he said. "I better get moving. Number twenty-three must be on one of the top floors."

He ran over to the stairwell where the two men came from and inspected the surrounding area before going up. As he went higher up, he could hear what sounded like intense fighting going on upstairs. The sounds of gunfire, shouting, and explosions got louder and louder as he climbed.

An especially loud explosion rocked the building, causing Travis to almost lose his balance. When the noise died down, all the combat sounds from upstairs had ceased. The stairwell was suddenly struck with dead silence.

Travis stood still for a few seconds to regain his balance, then started cautiously walking up the stairs again.

He got up to the seventh floor and found the door completely blown off. Smoke and flames poured from the room outside the stairwell, and several more dead bodies littered the area—some missing entire sections of their bodies.

The sound of machine gun fire from further upstairs overlapped the roaring flames. More shouting could also be heard faintly over all the noise.

"Where are all these guys coming from?" Travis asked aloud. "And who the hell is stealing all of my kills here?"

Travis rushed up the stairs, hoping to at least get a look at the other killer. He got to the door on the tenth floor, confirming that the noise was indeed coming from this level, and opened the door.

The hallway was lined with bodies and a trail of blood on the floor gave Travis a clue as to where the assassin was going. Following it, he opened another door and came to a large square room that appeared to be some kind of conference room, although there was no furniture. Several bodies lay around the area, although these ones looked different.

Travis bent down to one of the bodies and inspected it. The man's throat had deep red marks all over it. Had to have been a garotte wire of some kind.

A slightly muffled beeping noise nearby caught Travis' attention. He got up and searched the immediate area, listening for the beeping. It seemed as though it was coming from a lone corpse on the opposite wall, and as Travis got closer, the beeping seemed to gradually increase in speed.

The sound was coming from the man's enclosed hand. Travis bent down to open it up—the beeping was only getting faster—and found he was holding a cell phone. The screen was showing a map, ostensibly of the city block, and a red dot at the center building, which Travis assumed was this building.

"Oh, don't tell me," he said to himself. He held the phone farther away from him, and the beeping slowed a bit. He then brought it closer to himself, and the beeping grew faster.

"A fucking homing device," he muttered. "They must've put it on me sometime earlier. Damn, when and how did they do this? And how did they get here before me if they were tracking me? Unless…"

He turned off the cell phone, pocketed it, and ran back over to the stairwell. He kicked open the door and dashed up about twenty flights of stairs before reaching the top. By then, his legs were aching, but he figured that whoever number twenty-three was had to have been at the top.

"Where else would an assassin go to elude other assassins in a high-rise with no working elevators?" he pondered as he wandered through the halls.

After walking aimlessly, looking for some sign of the killer, he turned a corner and came to shut door whose frame was completely surrounded by wires and small red devices. Clearly rigged to blow. _This guy sure has nothing to hide._

He looked around the area for something on the ground, any kind of object that could set it off. He backtracked to the main hallway and found a rusty nail on the ground, apparently left over from when they were constructing the walls. He walked back to the rigged door, staying a good distance away from it, and aimed the nail as though he were throwing a dart.

_Come on, don't fail me now._ He winded his arm back, took a step forward, and threw the nail; he immediately ducked down behind a nearby table and covered his head with his hands.

The nail hit one of the red devices dead center and cracked the outer casing, breaking the wires connected. The door ignited in a fiery explosion, taking a large piece of the wall with it. Bits of wood and drywall flew in every which direction, some of them raining down on Travis.

He peeked his head up after the explosion was finished and looked at the hole where the door used to be. Grabbing Blood Berry from his belt and igniting it, he slowly stepped through the hole and into the next room. Along the way, he passed by a slip of paper nailed to the other side of the wall. It read:

_You saw me, but were you really looking at me?_

But in his eagerness to see the next assassin, Travis failed to even notice the paper.


	10. Votes  RANK 23

Travis entered the next room cautiously. It was a large square room with four concrete pillars holding up the ceiling in each corner. Sunlight poured in from the left side, where the wall had not yet been built, giving a nice view of the city. Several construction cranes sitting right outside were also visible.

Travis looked up at the ceiling and saw wires not unlike the ones that had the door rigged running all around. Each pillar had a small metallic device near the top. _This whole fucking room is rigged_.

A man emerged from the opposite side of the room, eyeing Travis. "I sure hope you're Mr. 24," he said. He had a slight British accent.

"That's me," Travis replied. "Is that your handiwork downstairs?"

The man walked to the center of the room. Travis got a good look at him; he was tall, well-groomed, and classy-looking. His dark hair flowed neatly to one side and his tuxedo looked smooth and straight, complete with a matching black bowtie and a pair of sunglasses hanging from the pocket protector on the left side of his jacket. On the right side, a lapel pin in the shape of a horse hung neatly. Travis also noticed that the man had a watch on both wrists.

"Yes," the man responded. "They arrived just after I got here. I think they were looking for you."

"Yeah, I figured that." Travis took out the cell phone from his pocket and turned it on. The beeping immediately started up at full speed. "They must've bugged me somewhere along the line."

"Hm, that would explain it. Anyway, I suppose you're itching to fight."

"You guessed it," Travis said, turning the cell phone off and putting it back in his pocket.

"Good. I could use a good old-fashioned one-on-one duel. You don't get too many of those when you work for the government."

"The government, huh?"

"That's right," the man said, beginning to pace. "I was one of their top field agents several years ago. I always got the job done, no matter how many tough scrapes I fell into. I had it made."

"So what happened, then?" Travis was starting to get impatient.

"What else? Leaders and policies change, and they decided I was too much of a liability. Despite that I happened to have one of the best success records of all the field operatives there."

"So you became a ranked assassin, of all things."

"I have to say, I don't know what justice is anymore. It seemed like that's all I was told back then: their own perception of justice. But now that I don't have anyone reminding me of that anymore, I feel like I'm running my own little country. I am my own boss."

"Well, that's good to hear," Travis said, raising his beam katana. "So are we gonna get to this or what?"

The agent stopped pacing and faced Travis. He covertly curled his fingers toward his wrist, where the clamps of the watches were locked. "Yeah. Let's see whose country is truly better."

* * *

Travis charged at Grey, beam katana in hand. Grey quickly released the clamps on the watches with his fingers and allowed the watches to drop from his wrists right into his hands. He aimed the watch displays up at Travis, and a bright blue laser burst from each one.

Travis, not expecting this move, quickly raised his sword up to block the lasers. The lasers clashed with the sword, forcing him back a few steps. With two lasers and only one sword, Travis found himself unable to hold his ground for long as he was pushed back along the floor.

A faint but audible beeping sound directed Travis' attention to his beam katana, and he realized that the constant contact with the lasers was draining the katana's battery power at a steady rate—it was almost empty now. If the battery were to completely die, the katana would shut off and the lasers would shoot unopposed through Travis' body.

Travis quickly de-activated the katana and dove to the ground, rolling away from the pursuing lasers and ducking behind one of the stone pillars. He pushed a red button on the side of the katana hilt and shook it vigorously, charging the battery back up to full power.

Travis waited until he heard the lasers stop before he jumped back out into the open. He immediately attempted to charge Grey again, who aimed his watches back at Travis.

"Want some more?" Grey snapped as he activated the lasers on the watches.

This time, Travis made a horizontal slice to block the lasers. The impact of the clash forced Travis to take a couple steps back, but he had a better grip of his sword this time due to the angle. Grey and Travis seemed almost evenly matched.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you," Grey said as he struggled to maintain the lasers.

"What's that?" Travis said, also struggling.

Grey de-activated the lasers, then re-activated them in short bursts rather than a continued stream. Travis deflected each one with a quick slash. Grey responded by shooting the lasers continuously again, which Travis blocked in the same fashion as before.

"Why do you continue to fight after all this time? Twice you've reached the top of the ranks and walked away from it. So why are you fighting again?"

Travis managed to overpower the lasers and complete his swing, reflecting them over to the back wall, where they exploded and created a medium-sized hole. Travis then used the opportunity to charge Grey, swinging once at his head and again at his torso. Grey dodged both swings, then jumped back to give himself some room. He removed his lapel pin from his jacket and slid it on the ground over to where Travis was.

Travis saw a red light flashing on the pin, growing in frequency. It also began emitting a faint high-pitched beeping sound, which synched along with the flashing.

"Dammit!" Travis shouted. He dove over to the left, just before the pin exploded in a small but potent blast. He stood right back up after the blast cleared.

"And to answer your question," he responded. "I don't know why. I feel like I've been pushed back into this life of killing totally against my will."

"You don't enjoy fighting other assassins?"

"I used to love it. But now, I feel like I'm only doing it because someone's telling me to. That's not the kind of life I want as an assassin!"

"Ahh, I see. So you and I are not that much different then, are we?"

"Nope," he said, de-activating his beam katana and putting it back on his belt. "For me, being an assassin isn't about killing as many people as I can. It's about fighting honorably against other skilled assassins."

Grey re-aligned his watches and aimed them at Travis; Travis took Rose Nasty off his belt. They stared into each other's eyes for about twenty seconds.

"It's all for the money nowadays," Grey said, putting his fingers over one of the buttons on the watches.

"Let's forget they exist now," Travis replied, applying a combat stance.

"THIS IS FOR US!" they both shouted as they activated their weapons simultaneously.

Travis' beam swords clashed with the watch lasers; this time, he was able to stand his ground much easier thanks to the extra katana. He also noticed that Grey was attempting to curl his fingers around to the side of the watch, apparently attempting to press a button while the lasers were still going.

_Is he trying to increase the power? Not gonna let that happen._ Travis summoned as much strength as he could to push the lasers back. He was able to push them back to about arm's length, and then he gave a mighty shove using all of the force he had in him.

It was enough to send the lasers flying right back at Grey, where they impacted the watches themselves and completely destroyed them. Grey grunted and recoiled back, dropping the smoldering watches to the ground, where they crumbled into pieces upon impact.

"You bastard!" Grey shouted. His primary weapons obliterated, there was a clear look of apprehension on his face as he slowly backed away from Travis.

Travis advanced on him. "Is that all you got?"

Grey suddenly jumped back. "Not quite, my friend."

He pushed a hidden button on his sunglasses that were in his jacket pocket. A metallic clanging was heard, and Travis turned to look at the walls to see steel shutters closing down over all doors and windows—including the large opening on the west side of the room. The room became pitch black once they had all closed; in fact, the only light in the room was coming from Travis' own beam katanas. But even they weren't able to illuminate the room very well.

Travis frantically looked around the completely darkened room, blindly swinging his katanas in an attempt to get lucky and hit Grey, as well as illuminate the space in front of him as much as possible. He was able to see directly in front of him, but Grey was nowhere to be found.

Then he remembered something. When he first walked into the room, the four pillars each had a small device on them. Now, each one had a blinking blue light on it. He wasn't sure if it was a bomb or a sensor device or anything, but he knew he had to keep his eye on them.

A brief high-pitched whirring sound from behind got his attention. He wheeled around and saw one of the lights suddenly turn red. Before he could even do anything, a red laser shot from the device, and Travis, out of reflex, raised his sword and blocked it.

He looked behind him again and saw another device turn red and fire a laser. He rolled out of the way over to the right, got up, and backed away from where the devices were until he hit a steel wall. He was sure that he had his back to the large opening that used to be there.

Continuing to hold his katanas up to get as much light as he could, he looked in both directions for any sign of Grey's whereabouts.

_This guy loves his lasers._ Travis shouted into the darkness, "This is your idea of a fair fight?"

No answer.

_Alright, I have one chance,_ Travis thought to himself. _If this works, I can expose him and get rid of these lasers at the same time. Two high-tech birds with one stone._

Travis edged over to his right until he hit the corner where the walls met. The device closest to him turned red, and he raised his sword in response.

He took a deep breath and ran towards the device. It immediately shot a laser at him, and, with perfect accuracy and timing, he swung his katana at the laser, deflecting it and sending it right back to the device that it came from.

The laser impacted the machine and created a small explosion that briefly lit up the entire room. In the split second that the room was fully lit, Travis was able to see Grey—with a pair of sunglasses on—standing on the opposite side of the room.

When it went dark again, Travis charged over to the area where he saw him. He swung his beam katana, but as he expected, Grey had already moved to another location. One of the nearby devices turned red, and just as Travis turned around to look at it, it fired at him.

He deflected the laser back at the device and it exploded, lighting up the room again. This time, Travis saw that Grey was over on the right, clearly trying to buy time.

Instead of running straight to him, Travis circumvented around the room, staying close to the pillar to activate another device.

_I think I know where he's going._ When he got around, the device turned red and fired. He deflected the shot, but not back at the device; instead, he directed it over to the back wall and slightly to the left.

The sounds of the laser ripping through cloth and Grey yelping in pain were heard. Travis stood where he was and deflected another laser from the nearby device over to the same area. A small spark was seen, and Travis was certain it hit Grey's sunglasses dead center.

_Good thing that training in the dark with Master paid off,_ he thought.

More loud mechanical whirring filled the room as the shutters around the room lifted back up, and a massive stream of sunlight cascaded back in. The light blinded Travis for a bit, especially after being in complete darkness for a period of time. He looked up and saw Grey, standing immediately in front of the large opening, recuperating from the hit; his sunglasses lay smoldering on the ground next to him.

"I…" Grey stammered, covering his eyes with his hands. "I can't believe you…"

Travis de-activated one of the Rose Nasty swords. "You were controlling the lasers with the glasses, weren't you? It must've also given you heat vision of some kind."

Grey took his hands off his face and blinked hard a couple times. It took him a while before he was able to get his bearings again.

"Yeah," he finally replied. "It has always been my trump card, and no one has ever survived it, much less destroyed it."

Travis confidently hoisted his katana over his shoulder. "I am the best of the best, after all."

"Heh. But the battle isn't over yet."

"One more swipe is all I need to end this."

"I'm not out of weapons yet."

"Yeah, we'll see if that lasts. Let's go!"

Travis charged at Grey again, this time at a slower pace than before. As he got closer to him, he prepared himself to react at the slightest hint of a weapon being drawn.

When Travis reached about arm's length, Grey's shoes grew sharp razors on all sides, almost resembling a shuriken. On a shoe.

Travis noticed this and predicted an immediate attack; he quickly sidestepped over to the left to throw off Grey. Grey instead stayed still until Travis stepped to the side, at which point he brought his right foot up at him. He dodged it and swiped a couple times at him, missing both times.

They traded kicks and swipes a few more times, with no success. After a couple minutes of stalemate, Grey raised his right foot up in an attempted axe kick. When he brought his foot down, Travis knelt down to his knees, did a spinning sidestep to avoid the kick, then brought his katana up and sliced Grey's right leg off in one clean swoop.

Grey screamed in pain as blood flowed out the wound. He lost his balance and fell over to his right, immediately over the edge of the opening right next to him. He was able to grab onto the floor, barely saving himself.

As Grey struggled with his wound and with holding on, Travis walked over to where he hung on.

"What in God's name are you?" Grey asked, his voice quivering.

"I'm an assassin," Travis responded. "I'm a hero, and I'm a warrior. And I run my own personal country."

"There's a new one." He let out an attempt at a chuckle, but it almost came out as a sob. "A hero, huh? How would you define the term 'hero'?"

"I wanna be able to define it with my own actions. It's my personal vision, and it's impossible to explain."

"Well…I admire your sense of honor, but it won't last. You'll end up just like me someday, and then, you won't have anything left but a broken remnant of what that vision of yours used to be. You're being used, just like I was."

Travis said nothing in reply. Grey looked down below him, then back up at Travis.

"Fuck this competition," he muttered.

Grey released his grip on the floor and fell over twenty stories to his death down below. Travis watched as his body plummeted through the air out of control and smashed full-speed to the ground. The sound of his body hitting the concrete sent chills down Travis' spine.

"United we stand," Travis said to himself as he walked away from the edge.

* * *

"Oh, my," Sylvia's signature French accent said from nearby. "That won't do."

Travis looked up and saw Sylvia examining the many holes that were blasted into the walls throughout the course of the battle. She enthusiastically walked around the room, holding her digital camera and taking snapshots of almost every little detail. She then turned to Travis.

"Well, that was a challenging battle, no?" she said cheerfully.

Travis just stared at the floor. "You really have no respect for the dead, do you?"

"Come on, Travis. Don't be so down. You won fair and square, and as a result, you are now ranked twenty-third! You're getting there one step at a time."

"Just…" His mind cycled through about a hundred different ways to end that sentence, but eventually settled for the default one. "Just call me when the next fight's ready, alright?"

He gloomily exited the room and walked over to where the stairwell was.

"Oh, Travis!" Sylvia called after him. "The elevators are working, you know!"

"I'll take the stairs!" he called after her.

She stood looking after him with a puzzled look on her face. "What's gotten into him?" she asked aloud to herself.


	11. Blind Shadows

The next day, Travis' phone rang at around six in the evening. Travis, who had been sitting in his chair watching TV all day, got up and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Travis!" Sylvia's voice said on the other line. "We have set up the next ranked fight for you. How do you feel?"

"Wait, you're using the phone now?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Didn't you say that people could be watching or something like that?"

"Oh, there's no problem. It's only a routine call about your ranking match, right?"

"Uh…I guess."

"Right. So, come down to my office to get the details. I'll be waiting. Ta-ta!" She hung up.

Travis, confused, lowered the phone away from his ear and put it back on the holder. "O…kay."

Before he left his motel room, he spotted the cell phone laying on a nearby table that he picked up from one of Grey's victims. He thought about it for a while, then shrugged and put it in his pocket.

"Now's as good a time as any," he said to himself. "Maybe Sylvia knows something about this."

* * *

Travis arrived at the NUAA headquarters and made his way to Sylvia's office. He knocked on the door and waited for a response from her. After about twenty seconds of silence, he knocked again. Still no answer.

He sighed and leaned against the nearby wall. "Great. She has to leave while I need to get the details for the next fight."

Two minutes passed by with no sign of Sylvia. Travis straightened himself up from his leaning position and began to walk out the door. He had just gotten to the front door when it opened suddenly and Sylvia walked in just as Travis was about to walk out.

Travis recoiled back. "Wha—where the hell were you? I've been waiting here for two minutes. You said you had details about my next fight."

"Yes, yes. Sorry, Travis," she said impatiently. "I had to go check on something."

"Must've been really important," he said as they walked back to Sylvia's office.

"Well, sometimes urgent things pop up at inconvenient times. You know what that's like, don't you?"

Travis scoffed as Sylvia opened the door to her office, closing it again after they walked in. She sat down at her desk and he took the couch.

"So," she said. "Ready for the next match?"

"Yeah, but I got something I wanna bring up first." Travis reached into his pocket.

"Oh? Like what?"

Travis removed the cell phone from his pocket and tossed it to Sylvia, who caught it in her right hand.

"Found this on one of the dead bodies right before I fought that last guy. It's a tracker. They must've tagged me with a homing device somehow. But I don't even know who the hell they are."

Sylvia examined the phone for a bit, pushed a few buttons, then set it down. "Looks like this phone belongs to the guys at Vesin Firms. They really want you dead."

Travis sighed. "Those shitheads again? Why are they so obsessed over me?"

"Someone's paying them off. Money's the only thing corporations like Vesin understand."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Tell you what, I'll find out more information while you're off at your ranking battle. How does that sound?"

Travis stood up. "Alright, sounds good."

"Your next battle takes place at the Destroy Brewery on the east side of the city. It's a long drive from here."

"Well, then that's more time for you to get the scoop on Vesin."

"See? That's thinking outside the box, no?"

He started towards the door. "Well, whatever. You'll let me know what you find out when I get back, right?"

"Of course. That's assuming you get back at all, Travis."

He laughed. "Four years since we first met, and you still don't know me too well? For God's sake, you know I'm coming back in one piece."

"Yes, but doesn't it feel like old times? Back during your first ascension up the ranks, I used to love calling you and telling you that very same thing before every fight. Didn't it get you pumped up every time I informed you about your certain death?"

"That's not exactly the support that I'd like, but I have to admit it does feel nostalgic to think about that again."

Travis opened the door and exited the room. He left the building, mounted his motorbike, and roared off towards the east side of the city in the direction of the Destroy Brewery.


	12. Translucent

===RANKING MATCH===  
—RANK 22: MASTER BRANDON SCOTT—

_"__Blood can be spilled for two, and the world will spin twice as fast."_

The sun had already set by the time Travis arrived at the brewery, giving the sky a dark blue hue with some strips of yellow draped around the horizon. A full moon had already settled itself into the sky, still relatively small in the early evening hours. Because the brewery was located in an industrial area, the smoke and waste from the nearby factories covered the sky in a light smog. The air felt muggy as a result.

Travis pulled up to the entrance of the brewery. The main building stood eight stories tall on its own, which seemed rather large for a brewery. Over to the side of the main building appeared to be a set of private living quarters that was linked by a single hallway.

_Damn, this isn't a brewery. This is a mansion pretending to be one,_ Travis thought.

He approached the front door, which was appropriately grandiose in both scale and décor. The two halves of the door formed an arch that stood a good fifteen feet tall. Taller than any front door should stand. But who could blame a ranked assassin for living extravagantly?

Travis didn't bother to knock on the door; he turned the knobs on both doors and pushed them open. The main foyer was lined with red carpets and illuminated by a large chandelier that hung precariously above Travis' head. A staircase across the hall led to the second level, ostensibly leading to those living quarters. Apart from that, the only other way out was a hallway to the left, probably going to the brewery. This was no amateur freelance assassin—not with this level of grandiosity. But then again, why would an amateur be on the ranking list in the first place? This was Travis' third ascension up the ranks, after all. He ought to be used to this by now.

As soon as he walked into the main foyer, he was greeted by a young woman standing primly in front of the staircase, her hands politely folded in front of her. Her garments were typical maid attire: a black short-sleeved shirt covered by a white apron, with a short skirt that hung just above her knees. But looking at the way she stood there, it was almost as though she was waiting for him. He stopped dead in his tracks the minute he saw her, startled.

She bowed. "Welcome to my master's home. You are here to see Master Scott?"

"Uhh…yeah, I am," Travis responded. He really didn't know who he was even looking for, but he didn't want to come off as uncertain.

"Excellent. Please follow me. He is expecting you."

She turned around in the direction of the stairs behind her and walked up to the second floor. Travis followed her apprehensively up the stairs and down the hallway.

"So who are you?" he asked her.

"My name is Lucille. I am Master Scott's personal caretaker and assistant."

"Huh, I see. And your master's a ranked assassin?"

"Yes, he is. He has been anxiously awaiting this match for a long time. We have both heard of your amazing feats of strength, Mr. Touchdown."

_Of course she knows my name. _"Oh. So, you've heard of me too, huh?"

"Of course. Everyone who joins the rankings has dreams of battling you someday. Master Scott in particular is most excited for this."

"Wow, you don't say. Let me ask you something, though. Why would your master need a caretaker anyway?"

"Truthfully, his days as an assassin have put a great strain on his body. He is not as nimble as he once was, so my job is to make sure he doesn't overdo it. He has been pushing himself a lot in preparation for this fight."

Travis felt a hint of disappointment. "So, will he able to put up a fight? I can't stand holding back, you know."

Lucille turned her head to face him as they continued down the hallway. "Don't worry, Mr. Touchdown. You will not be disappointed."

Travis nodded his acknowledgement back but said nothing. He found himself reflecting back on all the opponents he's ever faced in the UAA. As he did so, he had to admit that there were only a few times where he felt disappointed by an opponent. Usually, these opponents were lower on the ranking tier, which was understandable. It was this realization combined with Lucille's comment about her master's condition that made Travis worry a little. Nothing left him more unsatisfied after a fight than an easy opponent.

Travis noticed that there were now several doors on each side of the hallway. There were ten of them, five on each side, before the hallway ended with a larger and wider door.

_These could be lodging rooms or something like that,_ he thought. _What the hell does he need with all this, anyway?"_

He asked her, "So what are these rooms here?"

"Oh, these are training rooms," Lucille replied. "Master Scott's personal bodyguards train their skills and their bodies in these rooms, so they can be as fit as can be in the case of an intruder."

_An intruder? Like me?_ "Does that happen a lot?"

"Oh, every now and then. Mostly petty thugs looking for trouble. Master is often unable to deal with them personally, so he must call on his bodyguards to take care of them."

Travis muttered his quick "uh-huh" as they approached the larger door at the hallway's end. Lucille grasped the door handle and then turned back to Travis.

"This room is the main dueling chamber, where Master Scott and his head bodyguard train daily. Here you will meet your first opponent."

"Uhh…" Travis stuttered a bit. "First opponent? What do—what do you mean?"

Lucille said nothing as she pushed open the door. The room beyond was a large, circular, ornately designed area that held a square arena in the center and a balcony in the back, which was accessible by a pair of staircases on both sides of the room. A door similar to the one they just walked through stood in the far back wall on the balcony. Immediately below the balcony, straight across from Travis and Lucille, was a small shrine where a golden statue of an ancient deity stood tall. Kneeling in front of the statue, with his back to Travis and Lucille, was a man in a purple robe. His head hunched over, they could faintly hear his voice mumbling something, too quiet to be comprehensible. He appeared to be deep in meditation.

"Wait here," Lucille said as she walked across the room over to where the man was. Her shoes loudly clapped with each footstep on the hard tile floor. When she got to the middle of the room, the man's voice stopped and his head tilted up slightly.

The man spoke in Japanese, with a sharp, loud voice that reverberated off the walls. Travis heard the word "Lucille-san" used in his speech (although it sounded more like "Rusiru-san"). He put his hand on one of his beam katanas, ready to be activated if needed.

Lucille responded back to him in Japanese, gesturing to Travis twice during her speech. When she was done, she walked back over to where Travis was. The man stood up, and Travis saw he had a sword hanging from his waist.

Travis whispered to Lucille, "So, what's going on? Who's he?"

"This is Tainaka-san," she responded. "He is Master Scott's sparring partner and personal bodyguard, as well as the head of security. He will test you before you face my master."

"Wait, an exhibition match? Why do I need this? What about the real fight, the one that I actually came here for?"

Tainaka turned around to face them. He extended his hand and shouted "COME!" in a booming voice that echoed off the walls. Even Travis flinched at that.

Travis glanced at Lucille; she nodded back at him. He sighed and walked to the center of the arena as Tainaka did the same. Travis removed Blood Berry from his belt and activated it; Tainaka unsheathed his steel-bladed katana.

"A real katana, huh?" Travis said to Tainaka. "That's pretty old-fashioned. You must be pretty confident with yourself."

Tainaka chuckled and replied to him in Japanese, raising his sword in front of him to meet Travis'. Travis followed suit and raised his sword to meet his opponent's. The energy beam emitting from Blood Berry crackled against Tainaka's blade but caused no visible damage, much to Travis' amazement.

The two locked eyes, trying to read each other's style and predict their first move. Travis found an iron gaze in Tainaka—a cold, ruthless stare that demanded apprehension and respect. This was the gaze of a man who had been fighting for years and had slain many strong opponents in his lifetime. There was definitely a gimmick in this man's repertoire that gave him an edge over other swordsmen.

Tainaka made the first move. He swung his blade abruptly to clash with Blood Berry. The friction caused by the blades sent sparks everywhere. Then Travis noticed that the very tip of Tainaka's blade had briefly caught fire.

"What the hell?" Travis exclaimed. "How the fuck did you do that?"

Tainaka chuckled and attempted to rush Travis. His blade clashed with Blood Berry and was immediately set alight, putting considerable pressure on Blood Berry's battery system. Travis pushed Tainaka away and backed into the far side of the arena. He began to shake his katana to charge it, but stopped when he realized that it wasn't responding. The battery had completely short-circuited.

"Oh, fuck," he said aloud. "It won't charge. You bastard! This was my first beam katana!"

As he holstered Blood Berry and removed Rose Nasty from his belt, he saw Tainaka fasten a steel ring around his left wrist. The opposite hand which he used to hold his sword.

"Kote…" Tainaka grunted. He brought his left wrist out and held his sword to the steel ring, as though he were about to slit his own wrist with it. Travis watched as Tainaka sharply swung his sword, causing friction with the steel ring and fully igniting the blade.

Travis quickly activated Rose Nasty but was forced to dodge to the left as Tainaka jumped towards him with a flaming downward slice. Travis regained his stance and attempted a running cross slash. At the last moment before he made the slice, Tainaka jumped away and countered with a vertical slash. Travis was forced to quickly jump back from the flaming blade.

_Damn, if I try to block that sword, it's just gonna fry again. I gotta find another way to beat him._

Tainaka immediately went on the offensive with multiple fiery swings and slashes, hot ashes flying all over the place. Travis struggled to dodge every swing, choosing not to parry any blows in fear of short-circuiting another beam katana. He continuously dodged every swing, only getting lightly singed on a couple occasions, until he found himself backed into a wall with Tainaka coming in, sword pointed directly at him.

Travis quickly ducked to the right just before the flaming sword drove through the concrete wall; he felt the intense heat against his face as he sidestepped out of the way. Knowing he had to act fast, he deactivated both Rose Nasty blades and threw them down to the ground. Before Tainaka could try to pull his sword back out, Travis ran forward and grabbed his wrist to keep him from moving it. He then kicked Tainaka's left knee hard, making him yelp in pain and kneel down to his other knee. Travis used this opportunity to grab a hold of Tainaka—grasping both sides of his torso, lifting him up and slamming him back onto the floor.

Realizing he didn't have time to retrieve Rose Nasty, Travis swiftly took Camellia off his belt and activated it. He rushed toward Tainaka as the latter collected his sword that had fallen next to him. He had no more than gotten up on his knee when Travis swung his katana and sliced horizontally through his chest. The beam went through his left arm, across his chest, and back out his right shoulder.

Tainaka gurgled as he tried to hold up his heavy sword, but he couldn't hold it for long. As soon as he dropped the sword, he collapsed to the ground and broke into three pieces, spilling blood and innards all over the floor.

Travis sheathed his beam katana and walked over to where the two blades of Rose Nasty laid on the floor. As he picked them up and placed them back on his belt, he looked at Blood Berry's hilt hanging there.

_Fuck, I can't believe it. I've never had a beam katana short out like that. Naomi's really gonna let me have it._

He turned back to the door that he came in to find Lucille was no longer standing there. In the heat of the battle, Travis had completely forgotten about her. He ran through the door and down the hallway, checking in all the training rooms to see if she was in any of them. She wasn't. In fact, no one was in any of them.

He reached the main foyer and stopped. The only other place Scott and Lucille could be is in the brewery, down the other hallway. As he began to run through the hall, he reflected back on Lucille's actions. Why would she have led him down the wrong way to fight a completely unrelated opponent? Was she trying to stall? Did it have something to do with what she said about Scott being less active than he used to be? Why sacrifice someone like Tainaka for that? Could there be more at stake than a simple tier ranking?

What also haunted Travis was the extreme lack of resistance he was encountering as he navigated through the brewery. There were no guards in suits wielding metal crowbars or machine guns or stop signs or anything like he was used to. It was obvious Scott had the manpower to at least put up a decent fight, so why wouldn't he use it?

After mindlessly taking several twists and turns without even thinking about where he was going, Travis eventually came to a flight of stairs with a sign saying "MAIN OFFICE" pointing upward. He shrugged and walked up, coming to yet another long hallway.

At the end of the hallway was a lone door, with another sign on the adjacent wall reading "MAIN OFFICE." Travis removed Rose Nasty from his belt and prepared himself for the upcoming fight. There was no doubt in his mind that Scott had a nasty trick of some kind, one much worse than Tainaka's fire gimmick. The cold manner in which Scott sacrificed Tainaka to Travis strongly suggested that it had a purpose. And Travis was about to find out very soon.

He kicked the door open with all of his might and walked inside.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Sorry for my extended absence, but I'm happy to announce I'm back in business! I greatly appreciate all my readers and reviewers for taking the time to read and comment on this story. You gave me the inspiration to keep this going in a time where my life was getting a little hectic. You guys rule!


	13. Colorful Sins RANK 22

The main office was a medium-sized square room—not much bigger than Jasper Batt's office—with a large plate-glass window on the left side, looking out toward the city. The sky was completely dark and the moon had begun to creep up from the horizon. Directly across from where Travis walked in, another large window provided a view towards the brewing equipment one floor below. A man stood in front of that window, looking down at all the machinery, and holding a cane with both hands. From the back, Travis could tell the man was quite old; his hair was heavily graying.

Travis didn't take two steps forward before the man spoke to him. "Do you know how whiskey is distilled?"

_Oh, great. One of these people._ "No, I'm afraid I don't," Travis responded.

"When a fermented mixture is boiled, the alcohol vapors that release are secured in tubes, which must then be cooled. That changes it back into a liquid that, as you might expect, has a very high alcohol content. They repeat this process several times to get a nearly pure concentration of alcohol in liquid form, but in order to bring it down to required levels, they'll add a touch of purified water to the mixture."

Travis looked around. "Uhh…I thought this was a brewery. They make beer here, not whiskey."

The man continued, oblivious of Travis' statement. "Soon enough, I found that the same process could be done with a liquid form of nitroglycerin, but with certain differences. Naturally, you can't boil nitroglycerin, but you can separate the nitric acid from the glycerol by cooling the mixture down and slowly heating it again, to the point that the nitric acid is evaporated. Then you just add some acetic acid to the glycerol, and you now have glycerine acetate."

"Look," Travis said, crossing his arms. "If I wanted a science lesson, I would've gone back to school. Are you gonna get to the point sometime today?"

"My point, son, is that glycerine acetate is a fuel additive that I have only begun to mass produce as a makeshift weapon. You got a mild taste of it when you faced Tainaka; his sword was covered in the stuff."

"Glycerine acetate, huh? So that's what he was using to set his sword on fire."

"It's different from regular gasoline in that it lacks the risk of spark knock, or abnormal combustion, and it has almost no thickness, so you can completely cover a sword in it and the naked eye would not be able to detect it. I've taken to calling it 'deathfuel'."

Travis lowered his hands to his belt. "So you have a neat little trick up your sleeve. I've seen a lot more impressive gimmicks in previous ranking battles than I've seen here so far, mister. Now let me tell you why I came here."

The man turned to face Travis; he kept both hands on his cane, the head of which was shaped like a wolf's head, and he appeared to be smiling. "Please do."

"I came here to find an opponent worthy of being ranked twenty-second in the country. But you know what I've found? All I've found so far is a second-rate swordsman with a second-rate gimmick and a maid who told me as we were walking down the hall that her master—Mr. Rank 22 himself—may not be able to give me the best of what he's got. If you weren't ready to face the best, then why the hell am I even here?"

"You are here to answer my challenge, are you not? And I know you're curious about my new scientific discovery, as Tainaka only used it in a very basic form. You're anxious to see more, I know you are."

"Yeah, and I don't wanna be disappointed. I hope you're ready to show me something good, _master_." Travis removed Rose Nasty from his belt.

"Of course." Scott lifted his cane a few inches and pounded it twice against the floor. The echo of the banging sound travelled through the hallways and reverberated off the many walls. The whole wing would've heard it.

The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs to the office filled the silence that followed. They were coming at a slow but steady pace. As they got closer and closer, Travis turned around to see that the figure coming up the stairs was none other than Lucille herself. And she was carrying two oddly shaped metallic contraptions, one in each hand.

_There she is,_ Travis thought. He chose not to say anything to her.

Lucille looked past Travis over to Scott standing behind him. She bowed. "Reporting as ordered, master."

"Mr. Touchdown," Scott said. Travis turned to face him. "I know you've met Lucille. She has always been a most loyal servant and a friend in the truest sense. No master could have asked for a better caretaker."

"Why is she here?" Travis asked. "This is between you and me. She can take your place here after I take your life, but I don't like tag battles."

Scott continued. "But there's something about Lucille that you probably didn't know when you first met her. You see, she has always embraced my lifestyle as an assassin and supported me one hundred percent. However, the more I killed, the more I noticed she became…thirsty. Thirsty not only to see more, but to _taste_ more. And now…"

He gestured back to her, Travis turning to face her. She had just finished securing the strange objects to her wrists, which gave Travis a better look at them. They were gauntlets of some kind, dark in color, designed to fit over the hand like a glove, with a long blade—about fifteen inches in length—attached to the back. The blade itself had a sheen to it, as though previously dipped in a liquid.

It then dawned on Travis. Lucille's eyes no longer contained that youthful innocence and prim servant look they had earlier; now, they were the eyes of a deranged psychopath—one who not only enjoys killing others, but _thrives_ on it. These were the eyes of an unpredictable and virtually fearless killer. He's seen it before, but this gaze instilled a sense of intimidation in him. A very rare feeling indeed.

"You see, Mr. Touchdown," Scott continued. "I haven't killed anyone in fifteen years. The real assassin, fighting in my name, is the woman you see before you. And it just so happens that this deathfuel's first real opponent is you, so you can understand this is a very special battle for a number of reasons."

Travis and Lucille circled around the room, silently eyeing each other with a deathly serious glare. Travis wasn't sure how this maid was going to fight or how she would react if he made the first move, but he knew that he would not be able to reach Scott without taking her out of the picture first. Even just walking around the room, her movements were precise, graceful, and they reflected her silent confidence in herself. There was no doubt anymore; she knew what she was doing.

He activated Rose Nasty. "You know, you really had me going there," he said to Lucille. "The whole maid thing you pulled off pretty damn well."

"The maid thing was real," she replied. Her voice was menacing and almost guttural. To Travis, she was a completely different person from before. "I owe my life to Master Scott, and I would gladly give mine to protect his."

"Sure sounds noble coming from an assassin. How long have you been in this business again? Fifteen years?"

"I began my training fifteen years ago, yes. I didn't start killing professionally until about eight years ago."

"That's a pretty long time," Travis said. He raised his left hand, pointing his katana in Lucille's face. "But just so you know, once I'm done here, you and your master are both gonna be meeting the devil face-to-face. Your story's interesting and all, but I'm still gonna do what I came here to do."

"Well, aren't you hot shit," Lucille said, adopting a battle stance. "I hope you're ready, Mr. Touchdown, because I'll shove your burnt, overcooked appendages right down your throat until you choke on them!"

* * *

Lucille made the first move by striking the two blades on her gauntlets together, causing them to fully ignite. Travis knew that blocking these flaming blades would only damage his beam katana, and he was already short one. Getting Naomi to repair Blood Berry would be hard and expensive enough.

Lucille rushed toward Travis and swung her blades twice, Travis dodging both swings. She followed up with a roundhouse kick that nailed him right in the chest, sending him reeling over to the wall, and then lunged at him with the blade on her right hand. He was able to move out of the way right before the blade went straight through the concrete wall; the force of the strike combined with the small space within the wall made the flame dissipate.

Travis swung his katana at her, but she dodged the beam and spin-kicked him in the back, sending him headfirst to the wall and sending his katanas falling to the ground. Brandishing the other flaming blade, she grabbed Travis' throat with her right hand and prepared to stab him with her left. He grabbed her hand, trying to hold back the blade. As it pushed closer and closer, he could feel the fire beginning to singe his face, the intense heat consuming all the breathable air around him.

Lucille made one final push, the blade aimed straight at his right eye. At the last second, Travis moved his head to the right and the blade went straight through the wall, again extinguishing the flame on it.

Travis quickly stood up and got behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Before she could break free, he lifted her up and slammed her back down in a Backward Tiger Suplex. He grabbed both Rose Nasty blades off the floor as he scurried back up to his feet and re-ignited Rose Nasty, raising the blades above his head and getting ready to strike, but was interrupted when Lucille spun herself around and tripped him with a quick foot sweep, sending him down to the ground as well. The force of the fall knocked Rose Nasty out of his hands and down to the floor.

As soon as Travis fell, Lucille sprang up and wrapped her legs around his throat, squeezing tightly. Travis lay choking on the floor, trying to pry her off with one hand and trying to reach his beam katana with the other. The hilt was just barely out of his reach, and it seemed like he was about to run out of air before he could find a way to get it.

_Dammit! Come on, I can't die this early. Just…outta reach. Wait, maybe I can get one of my other beam katanas out!_

Travis frantically frisked his belt for another beam katana and grabbed the first one that he could find. He hardly cared which one it was; any would produce the desired effect. He dislodged the hilt from his belt and pressed the button—only for it to simply spark and whir faintly. No beam emerged.

He silently cursed to himself. _Son of a bitch! I grabbed Blood Berry. The receiver's still fried. But maybe I can use this._

Gasping and choking desperately for air, Travis jammed the sparking end of Blood Berry's hilt into Lucille's right leg, scalding and burning it badly. She screamed in agony and released her grip on his throat, allowing him to break free and kick her back down to the ground. Travis jumped back up to his feet and switched out his swords in one quick motion, putting Blood Berry back with his right hand and grabbing Camellia with his left.

As he ignited Camellia and attempted another strike, Lucille grabbed a small spherical object from her waist. She threw it at him as he came charging; he blocked it effortlessly, but when the object came in contact with the beam, it produced a tiny explosion that released a cloud of green vapor in the immediate vicinity. Lucille immediately covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve.

Travis jumped back away from the vapor and began coughing violently. Some of the vapor went up his nose before he had a chance to escape, sending a wave of sewer-flavored gas down his throat, poisoning his body from the inside. While coughing, he happened to look up and see Lucille grabbing another one off her belt and throwing it with lightning reflexes.

Travis managed to jump out of the way before the object exploded, safely landing out of range of the vapor cloud. He was still having trouble breathing, but was able to stand nonetheless.

Lucille grinned. "Heh, seems like you got lucky. No one has ever survived a vapor bomb at close range like that. I guess you got away before most of the poison got into your body. I knew you were something special."

Travis got his composure back and stood up straight. "V...vapor bombs, huh? Well, that's twice you've tried to choke me to death so far. I'm starting to think you have a kick for this sort of thing."

"Ah, you're so right. I don't mind admitting it to you. That is how at least 90 percent of my victims meet their end. I love the sensation of being in control of their fate. I love the frantic and helpless sounds they make when they gag with their guttural dying breaths. Ohhhh...you couldn't possibly understand the feelings that rush through me...the rush of slow, painful death as their body pumps adrenaline like a factory." She sighed loudly. "Do you think you could ever understand?"

"Actually, I've always preferred to go with the quick and instant death, myself. But for a complete psycho like you, why not? I think I can make an exception."

"Is that so? Because I've heard that you've made a name for yourself by being a little merciful to certain female assassins on more than one occasion. What's up with that, huh? You don't have the balls to draw your sword on a woman?"

As she talked, Lucille surreptitiously placed her hand along her waist, feeling for another vapor bomb. Spotting this, Travis secretly felt along his belt for Blood Berry's hilt. He chuckled, trying to keep her occupied with the conversation. "I've long since stopped that practice. Don't worry, you're not in any danger of being spared in this battle."

The instant he finished talking, Lucille threw a vapor bomb at Travis, who immediately threw the hilt of Blood Berry to meet with the bomb's trajectory. The sword and the bomb collided in midair, detonating the latter and sending the former falling to the floor. Lucille was not expecting this sudden counterstrike and was caught unprepared when she saw Travis rushing through the resulting poison cloud, holding his breath as he ran and his Camellia beam katana in his hand in striking position.

Travis swung the katana at her but she dodged. After dodging a few more swings, she leapt onto his shoulder and bounced off with her right foot, sending her flying across the room over to the wall where her blades were stuck. She quickly grabbed them, dislodged them from the wall, and ignited them all in one fast swoop.

Travis' gut sank. _Oh, no. Not again. I had her!_

The next move of the battle was interrupted by the sound of someone clapping. Travis and Lucille both looked over to see it was coming from Scott himself.

"Absolutely incredible!" Scott's face was beaming. "In all my years as an assassin and a mentor, I have never seen such a remarkable exchange of wits and strategic understand of your opponents. Now that I have seen it, I can truly say that I have lived."

The two turned back to each other, glaring, trying to read each other's next move. Travis detected a hint of irritation in Lucille's face and body movements.

Scott continued, "What will you do now, Mr. Touchdown? Your beam sword is next to useless when her blades are fully ignited."

Travis scoffed, putting Camellia back on his belt and removing Peony. When he ignited it, the beam extended almost up to the ceiling.

Lucille scoffed back. "You expect that dickheaded piece of shit to save you now?"

Travis hoisted Peony over his shoulder with his right hand and held out his left hand invitingly. "Well, come on. Let's see what you got, princess!"

Lucille began to make a move but Travis was ready; he swung Peony across the room, knocking over multiple objects and damaging the walls and forcing her to make a hasty duck. After he finished the swing, she hopped back up and lunged at him with her blades pointed forward. He quickly spun around and ducked, dodging her blades and thrusting the back end of Peony into her stomach. The blow made her gasp and sent her reeling backwards doubled over, where he could keep her at bay with his sword's long reach.

She recovered from the blow and stood up straight, clearly becoming more agitated as he could tell by the expression in her face. She made another charge, but this time Travis swung Peony in a diagonal motion, catching her unprepared and charring her leg. She yelled in pain and fell headfirst back down to the floor. When she picked her head up to look at him, Travis could see she was in a state of sheer rage.

"You _motherfucker_!" she seethed, breathing hard. "Give up and fucking _die_ already!"

"Lucille," Scott said. Both turned to face him. "You are letting your emotions overcome you again. Remember your training: your opponent can read your movements when you are agitated. Concentrate on your training, and bring your—"

"_Shut up, old man!_" she shouted. Both Scott and Travis looked shocked. "I don't need your fucking advice! Keep that fucking shit to yourself, you fucking prick!"

"Lucille!" Scott raised his voice. "You are dishonoring your master, as well as yourself! You have no hope of winning if you continue this!"

"I will win," she seethed, quietly cackling a little. "I'll cut this little shit into tiny fucking pieces. Then we'll see who the winner is! We'll see who the best is, won't we? _You think you're the fucking best?_" She was screaming at this point."_YOU'RE NOT MOTHERFUCKING SHIT WITHOUT YOUR FUCKING BEAM SWORDS!_"

Travis lowered his sword, then deactivated it and put it on his belt. He was smiling. "Fine, you asked for it. I'll kill you right here, right now, without using my beam katanas."

Lucille smiled and stood up, cackling to herself. "Good! It's about time you grew some balls!" She readied her blades, which were still burning. "Time to get a taste of what hell feels like!"

They both charged at each other. When they got close, Travis performed a slide and knocked her down. They wrestled with each other while they were on the ground, culminating in Travis shoving his elbow into her waist before somersaulting backward and getting back up on his feet. When Lucille got back up on her feet, she was holding her side and breathing heavily. She was clearly on her last leg.

"That was a dirty move," she said. "But too bad it will be your la—" She suddenly stopped talking and began choking. Her labored breathing turned into desperate gasps for air and she held her throat and began stumbling around the room in panic.

Scott was shocked and confused. "Lucille! What's wrong? Why can't you breathe?"

"Heh," Travis chuckled. "Well, she has those vapor bombs on her waist for a reason, right? I thought she had a choking kick."

Scott looked closer and saw a cloud of green vapor emanating from Lucille, who was now doubled over on the ground choking to death. He then realized that when Travis elbowed her earlier, it released the pins on the bombs and started emitting the toxic gas. Before she had a chance to realize it, she had already inhaled too much of it. Scott was stunned. "Un...Unbeliev...I cannot believe this!"

Travis nodded his head. "You were right, old man. She was too thirsty for blood. You taught her humility, but that went out the window once she began to struggle against me."

"Lucille...you always were unstable," Scott said sullenly, shaking his head. "I thought my training had cured that for you, but I guess that sort of thing never really leaves once it enters."

"Yeah," Travis replied. "Once a killer, always a killer."

"Indeed." Scott sighed. "Then, it is over."

"Afraid so."

"Let them know, Mr. Touchdown, that I had the best of intentions."

Travis removed Camellia from his belt and ignited it. "I'm sure they already do. Good night, pops." He swung, taking his head clean off in a spray of blood as the body fell to the floor.

* * *

The sound of high heels were heard coming up the stairs behind him. Before he could say anything...

"Congratulations on number twenty-two!" Sylvia was already in the doorway. "Quite a battle."

"Well, that one was a doozy." Travis said. He looked over at her disposal crew as they inspected Lucille's body in the corner. After a while, they looked back to Sylvia and nodded, to which she nodded back.

"That poison of hers works fast, apparently," she said. "Not much pain, at least."

"Well, she was highly unhinged. Not the first psycho bitch I've fought, but these gals get into killing so young these days."

"Just look at it as a profession, Travis! Like any other. In fact, she was only an assassin part-time."

Travis sighed and nodded. "Yep. That's that. Anyway, call me when the next one's ready! Hopefully that one will be updated quicker than this fight was." He walked out, left the mansion, and took off on his motorbike towards the night skyline.


	14. With or Without

"Oh, shit! It's noon already?"

Travis had slept in the next day, completely exhausted from his previous fight and distressed about the loss of Blood Berry. He still had the hilt intact, which he was hoping would be enough for Dr. Naomi to repair. He was even willing to shell out additional LB dollars to add some new enhancements if at all possible, but he just knew she wasn't going to be enthused about it.

He hopped out of bed, throwing on a pair of jeans and a black Bizarre Jelly T-shirt but leaving his signature red jacket behind. As he fastened his beam katanas to his belt, he remembered that Sylvia had her own homework assignment to do while he was out with his last battle, and now would be a good time to check on that.

He gave his kitty a quick rub behind the ears before heading out. When he opened the door, he could hear the sounds of a fight going on in the distance: incoherent shouting and occasional gunshots. He knew that, as twisted as this city has become, his only way to fix it was to continue with these ranking battles and see what came of them.

* * *

He decided to take the back alleys to Naomi's lab. He needed time to choose his words.

Travis exhaled deeply before entering the lab. When he opened the doors, he was only able to say, "Hey, Dr. Naomi—" before…

"Hey, hey, close the door!" Naomi shouted impatiently, sitting at her desk with her back to Travis. He quickly slammed the front door shut. She was hunched over the desk, tools in hand and safety goggles on, apparently working on something. After a few moments she tossed her tools to the side and leaned back in her chair.

"Well, to hell with it," she sighed. "I hope you're happy, whoever you are, that you just blew my concentration on this project."

"You could've locked the door, you know," Travis replied.

Recognizing the voice, Naomi wheeled her chair around to face him. "Ah, it's the otaku. What brings you here, babe? Still keeping that sword of yours busy?"

"Yeah. Actually, the reason I came here…" He took Blood Berry from his belt and walked over to her, placing it on her desk. She picked it up and inspected it, trying a couple times to ignite the blade only to have it spark and sputter.

"Well, damn! The receiver looks like it's totally fried. How on earth did you do this?"

"Well…" he began, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "This one guy had a flaming sword, and I had to block his swing at one point, so it kinda…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she stopped him, almost leaping up from her chair. "You blocked a _flaming sword_ with this katana?!"

"Well, I didn't know—"

"Honey, are you _out of your mind?!_" she barked. "This model wasn't designed to be exposed to severe heat like that! The battery melts so quickly that it ends up fusing to the ignition crystal and makes the whole thing unstable! You're lucky the katana didn't explode in your hands!"

"I know, I know."

She sighed and took a deep breath, leaning back in her chair once more. "So you want me to fix it for you, is that right?"

"I'd appreciate it," he said.

"It's not gonna be easy, honey. I've gotta take the whole thing apart and replace both the battery and the crystal, and those are rare and expensive." Travis sighed and leaned on the desk, crossing his arms. Naomi thought for a bit before continuing. "I'll tell you something, though. Ever since you hit number 1 the second time, I've been getting real good business from assassins and even other corporations. Sometimes I feel like my business is the only one that still moves in this damn city."

"So what are you saying?" Travis asked.

"I really do owe you for my success here. Tell you what, I'll take this katana and repair it as best I can, just for you." Travis' face lit up. She laughed out loud. "I never thought I'd hear myself say that."

"Thanks, doc!" His face was beaming.

"It won't be done tomorrow, you know. Come back next week and let's see how it's going. How's that sound, babe?"

"It'll be weird not to have my very first katana with me, but I think I'll manage. I appreciate it, doc."

Naomi chuckled. "Alright, now get outta here. I got work to do." She grabbed the hilt of Blood Berry and began working on it.

"Alrighty, can't wait," Travis nodded and started toward the door.

"Hey, kid!" Naomi called out. Travis stopped and turned around. "Next time, knock, would ya?"

* * *

Arriving at the NUAA building, Travis hopped off his motorbike and strolled inside. He was eager to hear what Sylvia had to say and what kind of information she dug up. The building was a hive of activity, with assassins of all shapes, sizes and colors gathered together. Many of them were engaged in conversation with the clerks around the office while others were simply sitting in the waiting rooms or talking amongst each other.

Travis continued back to Sylvia's office, looking around the room at all the assassins. Some of them were staring back, their eyebrows lowered in a stare of recognition. That's when it hit him: Travis had become so legendary that these people were probably here for him specifically.

As Travis was looking around the room, he bumped into someone, snapping him back. The person was a girl, seemingly in her teenage years…maybe early twenties. She looked at him for a brief moment, then quickly looked away and continued on her way out the front door. He looked ahead at the open office door where she came from; that was definitely Sylvia's office.

He knocked on the door and walked inside. Sylvia looked up and smiled. "Ah, Travis! I'm glad you're here. Please, have a seat."

He seated himself in his usual chair right next to the door. "Yeah, sure is a lot of activity in there. Are those all ranked assassins?"

"Yes, but most of them are ranked below you. Today is actually a very special day, because we're doing something a little different. I'm sure you'll be very interested in this!"

"Really? Well, what is it?"

"We are having our second ever battle royale in Destroy Stadium, this time with twenty-five ranked assassins all fighting for their lives where only one can walk out alive! The winner will jump up to rank 11 and will be congratulated by Nathaniel Tidas himself."

Travis raised his eyebrows nodded. "Wow. You don't say! So that's what all these assassins are here for."

"Yes, but sadly, not all of them have qualified to be on the ranking ladder for this event. Most are anxious for the opportunity to face you in battle."

"So many people are so willing to throw their lives away like that...that is pretty sad. So that girl who walked out of here just now, was she one of them?"

"Yes, but she did not qualify either. I rather like her, though. First assassin I've seen to use music sheets as her weapon, and she's quite deadly too. But…rules are rules, you know."

"Too young?"

"No. Not enough kills."

"Ah."

"So!" she said eagerly. "How do you feel about that?"

"Well, that does sound exciting…but actually, I wanted to know about that company that's been trying to kill me. Did you find any new info about them?"

"Oh, I would love to tell you all about it, Travis, but…the battle royale starts in a couple of hours, so you need to get over to the stadium pronto!"

Travis looked confused. "Wait, the battle is today?" Sylvia nodded back. "How come you never told me about this until _only a few hours before_?"

"I'm sorry, Travis…but things change, you know? You must understand, I have other clientele to take care of, not just you. We're a legitimate business now!"

"Yeah, but…" He sighed, irritated that he is once again being denied answers. "I just wanna know why these guys are trying to kill me. I need as much info on them as I can get. And the fact that I'm just now learning about a battle royale right before it's supposed to happen doesn't make things any easier for me!"

"Well, if you want to stay here and bitch about it, how do you expect to hit number 1 again? Life isn't always organized, especially for an assassin like yourself. If you want to be top rank again, you just have to deal with it."

Travis stood up from the chair and leaned on Sylvia's desk. "Okay, fine. But answer me this: what exactly is my motivation for fighting in the ranks a third time? I've already heard from this Tidas guy that it's supposed to clean the city of corrupt corporations, but I fail to see how exactly. Especially in light of this random royale battle he set up."

"Well, if you win, then you have the perfect opportunity to ask him!"

"Hmm…I guess you got a point there."

Sylvia giggled. "Then it's settled! Go out there and show no mercy to your admirers out there!"

"Alrighty, then," Travis said, standing upright. As he was leaving, he stopped to say one last thing. "You'll be watching, won't you?"

She smiled. "Of course I will." Satisfied, Travis chuckled and left the office.

* * *

A receptionist sat at a desk in front of the entrance to Destroy Stadium. She had a list of names sitting in front of her, most of which were marked with an X. Travis walked up to her and greeted her.

"Name, please," she said.

"Travis Touchdown."

"Touchdown…" She scanned through the list. "Ah! Here you are." She marked his name with an X. "Go on in. You are stationed at gate C8."

"Alright, thanks," he said, strolling inside.

As he walked through the stadium, he passed by several assassins at their stations, either standing alone or conversing with other assassins stationed there. As he would walk past them, they would suddenly stop with what they were doing and simply stare at him, wide-eyed and almost starstruck even. As though he were some kind of celebrity.

By the time Travis made it to gate B6, he had felt like prey under watch by a swarm of hawks. In fact, he had begun to attract a small crowd of assassins, following him, making him feel even more uneasy. The looks on their faces as they stared at him ranged from amazement and wonder to an expression of bloodlust. They all wanted a piece of him real bad.

Finally, at that point, he had had enough. He stopped and turned around to face the crowd following him. "Alright, people, you're starting to make me feel very uncomfortable here! I will get the opportunity to fight you all soon, so back off and go back to your stations already."

One man stepped forward. "We just wanna meet you, friend. This is a big opportunity for us to meet the best!"

"Huh," Travis muttered. "I understand everyone is anxious and all that stuff, but can't you all just wait?"

"Well, there's still some time before the match!" the man said. "Can't we just chitchat for a bit?"

Travis sighed. "Fine. So, what do you go by?"

The man extended his hand, but Travis only stared at it. The man lowered it back. "I'm Dave, but here I'm known as the Nightdream King. I'm ranked 14th on the list." He looked fairly young, possibly around the same age as Travis. He had an impressive build in his chest and arms, and he wore a red polo tucked into his khaki pants, almost looking like he just got back from the golf course. In Travis' eyes, he didn't look like a killer.

"I see," Travis replied. "And this posse here?"

"Ah, just fans of yours! You see, no assassin walks into this city without hearing about how you cut through both rankings like they were just sticks of butter. You are a hero to us all, an icon of how great things can derive from small beginnings. Haven't you ever had an idol that you've always wanted to meet up close?"

"Well…yeah, I see your point," Travis nodded. "I just like to have my space these days is all, I'm sure you understand."

"I can. Tell you what." Dave motioned at the crowd to disperse. With a few sighs and disappointed groans, they did. "You're a private man, I can understand that. I'll see you on the battlefield, yeah?" He tapped Travis on the arm and walked off. Travis shrugged and continued on his way towards his gate. After a few more minutes of walking, he saw the gate C8 sign right in front of him, when he heard a familiar female voice from behind.

"Master!" the voice shouted. Travis turned to see…

"Shinobu!" he exclaimed. It was indeed none other than Shinobu Jacobs, the samurai schoolgirl he crossed swords with in his first adventure and later took her on reluctantly as his self-proclaimed student. "What are you doing here?"

"Master, you haven't heard? I'm ranked 15th on the new ranking list! I was recommended by Sylvia."

His eyes widened. "What?! You were recommended? They offered you this position and you accepted?"

"Yes! I've always wanted to have another duel with you, Master."

Travis sighed. "Shinobu, I thought we discussed this. I'm not your master, I never was and I never will be. I don't do apprenticing."

"Well, I…" Her eyes lowered. "I wanted to…clear the air with you about last time."

"Oh…last time?" He suddenly felt awkward.

"Yes…you see, it's just…" Her stance slouched a little; she was staring at the ground, embarrassed to look at him. "I don't know how to say it really, but–"

"TRAVIS THE GREAT!" another female voice shrieked from the other direction. Travis and Shinobu turned to check the source of the voice, and it turned out to be none other than…

"Kimmy?" Travis' eyes got even wider. "You too?"

Kimmy Howell, the teenage schoolgirl who Travis dueled in his second run through the ranks, happily skipped up to Travis. Still as perky and happy-go-lucky as ever, she wore her school uniform complete with the skirt and knee-high black socks. She squealed with delight. "It really is! It's Travis the Great! I had no idea you were on the ranking list too!"

Before Travis could say anything, Shinobu stepped forward with an almost offended look on her face. She looked at Kimmy and then back at Travis. "'Travis the Great?' What does she mean by that, Master? Are you two…"

Travis quickly shook his head. "Wha–no, no! It's nothing like that…"

Kimmy stepped closer. "'Master?' I didn't know you were taking apprentices, Master Travis the Great! Please, will you take me as your student too?"

Travis held up his hands. "Hold on, I'm not—"

Shinobu stepped forward once again. "Sorry, but he already has an apprentice, and he can't take any more! And what's with you calling him 'Travis the Great' like you're his girlfriend or something?"

"Ohho, aren't we a little jealous!" Kimmy snapped back. "Excuse me, miss queen bitch, but Mr. Travis is my idol and no one gets to take that away from me! I am his number-one fan!"

"No, sorry, but you're not. Unlike you, I've actually fought him in an honorable one-on-one duel, and because he defeated me, I have sworn to become his pupil."

Kimmy scoffed. "Well, that's where you're wrong, because I dueled him in a one-on-one match too! Probably even long before you did…"

"You lying bitch!" Shinobu said, putting her hand on her sword. "I battled him long before you did! You don't even know what a true duel is!"

"How dare you suggest that!" Kimmy said, reaching into her pocket. "Let me tell you, I don't let any chick or bitch get between me and my hero. I just so happen to be ranked 16th on the ranks, and if you think you can steal my Travis from me just like that, you've bloody better think again!"

Travis looked back and forth, taken aback by this awkward situation. "U-uh…hey now, let's save it for the battle now, huh?" Both girls looked at him, then glared back at each other. Kimmy finally huffed and turned around, walking in the other direction. After she walked off, Travis expected Shinobu to make a remark of some kind, but she only let out a quick "hmph" before walking off in the other direction. Soon after, Sylvia's familiar voice sounded over the stadium intercom.

"Attention, all assassins. We are now ready to begin the Battle Royale. Please enter through your designated gate number to the main stadium. Fight your best, and remember, only one may come out alive!"

Travis slumped over and sighed. _Goddamn. Why did they get themselves involved in this? I know that if I wanna win this and move on to rank 11, I need to get rid of everyone in the arena. But what about those two? Can I…bring myself to kill them as well?_ "I…I can't do that…" he said out loud to himself. "What am I gonna do now?"

His thoughts raced as he entered through gate C8 to the main battle area. He and the twenty-four other assassins stood at each entrance, forming a perfect ring around the arena. Looking around the room, he saw quite a diverse cast of participants, including Kimmy and Shinobu standing on opposite sides of each other. Across from him he could also see Dave, still wearing that bright red polo that stood out like a bad sunburn. Travis half-expected him to whip out a golf club and beat people with it.

Travis removed Rose Nasty from his belt. He hadn't thought of a plan of action yet, but there was one thing he did know; something deep within him wasn't ready to bring himself to kill Kimmy or Shinobu, or even to see them kill each other. One thing was for sure: he would be keeping his eye on them.

Sylvia's voice came on the intercom again. "Assassins, prepare your weapons!" The sounds of many different weapons being powered on filled the silence. Travis activated both Rose Nasty blades. "Assume combat positions!" The combatants prepared for the upcoming brawl, adopting offensive stances.

"Now…FIGHT!"


End file.
